Recreational fisheries in the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea

1. Recreationalfisheries in the coastalareas of the BalticSea Results of a questionnaire Outi Heikinheimo, Antti Lappalainen and Jens Olsson HELCOM FISH meeting Warsaw 15 April 2015

2. Questionnaire to the participants of Fish Pro II Questions asked: Monitoring and surveys on recreational fisheries? Existing catch and effort data, magnitude of catches compared to commercial fisheries Licenses Gear types allowed Target species Management measures – catch quotas, effort restrictions, size limits for fish, technical measures such as minimum mesh sizes Significant changes in the recreational fishery or other comments

3. Monitoring and available data Surveys on a regular basis in Denmark (annually), Sweden (annually), Finland incuding Åland (every two years) In Latvia and Estonia subsistence fishery is monitoried, but reporting is often ignored. In Poland, Germany and Estonia the numbers of fishing licenses are monitored: Catch data available from specific areas such as salmon rivers in Estonia and cod in Germany In Poland the new legislation will imply reporting of catches, effort, area etc. Latvia and Lithuania: no monitoring of recreational fishing in the Baltic Sea (rod fishing)

4. Recreational catch and effort vs. commercial fishery • Significance of recreationalfisheries is notknown in manycountriesdue to lack of monitoring • In Sweden: Recreationalcatcheseven 65-95% of totalcatches (perch, pike, pikeperch, seatrout, whitefish), salmon20%. • Finland: recreationalperch, pike and roachcatchesmultifoldcompared to the commercialcatches, seatroutdouble; whitefish and pikeperchabout on the samelevel as commercialcatches • Denmark: Eelroughly 20% of the totalcatches, codlessthan 5% • Germany: The recreationalcodcatch is in the samerange as the commercialcatch

5. Licenses • Angling without reel is free in Sweden, Finland and Estonia. • For other gear types licenses and/or permits from water owner are needed, often for a restricted number of gear units • In Germany one week’s education needed to get the license for angling • In Poland and Estonia a license is needed. • Finland: for other fishing than angling or ice fishing with rod (”pilkki”) general fishing license is needed (ages 18-65) • For rod fishing with reel regional fishing licences or permits from water owner • Other gear types (gill nets, fyke nets etc.) permits from water owners • The new fishing law will cause some changes to this

6. Gear types • In most countries also passive gears such as gillnets and fyke nets, longlines allowed for recreational fishers: • Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia (fishing for own consumption) • In Poland and Lithuania only angling allowed • In Germany only “hobby fishermen” (having a former job in fishery) are allowed to use passive gears.

7. Target fish species • Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia: • Perch, pike, pikeperch, whitefish, sea trout, salmon, bream, Baltic herring, flounder etc. • Denmark, Poland, Lithuania, Germany • Sea trout, garfish (Belone belone), cod, salmon, flatfish species, in Denmark eel is caught with fykenets • In river mouths also freshwater species

8. Management measures in recreational fisheries • Catch quotas in some countries: • Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany reported daily quotas for e.g. sea trout, salmon, pike, perch and flounder • In Finland quotas are discussed for predator species in connection of the new fishing law. • Minimum size limits and effort restrictions are commonly applied, e.g. sea trout, salmon, grayling, pikeperch, pike, in some countries also perch, flounder; Åland bream and whitefish. • In Sweden also maximum length for pike (allowed catch size 40-75 cm) • Maximum lengths are discussed in Finland too.

9. Other restrictions • Variousseasonalorarealrestrictions, mainlytargeted to protect the spawningareasorspawningmigrations of fish • Limitations to gillnetmeshsizes • Sweden: Salmon with intactadipose fin have to bereleased. The same in Finland for seatrout, Gulf of Finland, publicwaterarea (alsohigherminimumsizethanelsewhere) • In Finland the waterownerscan set different (morestrict) regulations

10. Recent changes in recreational fishing • Sweden and Finland: • Fishing with passive gear less popular than before • Rod fishing has become more effective and is often species-specific • Echosounding is used by recreational fishermen • Fishing tourism from inland areas to the coast is common in Finland • Fishermen from other countries? • Lithuania: increase in the recreational fishing for cod • Poland: also increased sprot fishing in the sea area

11. Conclusions • Ratherpoormonitoringofrecreationalfisheries • Significantouttakeoffish from recreationalfisheries in manycountries (where it is known!) • In somecountriesfewregulations, in som morestrictregulations. Howwellare the regulationsfollowed? • In somecountriesonly angling allowed. In somealso passive gears as gillnets and longlines. • Same target species as the commercialfishery. • Thereseemsto be a general increase in recreationalfisheries • Recreationalfisheriesshould be monitored and surveyed!!

13. Teppo Tutkija